Intervention for food security and healthy eating
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  6. Intervention for food security and healthy eating

Understanding university students’ eating habits

Co-designing an intervention with university students and stakeholders to reduce food insecurity and improve access and affordability of fruit and vegetables for university students.

The prevalence of food insecurity in Australia was estimated to be up to 15 per cent before the COVID-19 pandemic, and there was a significant increase in the need for food relief since the COVID-19 outbreak. University students have been identified as a new at-risk population group for food insecurity.

This project aims to co-design an intervention with university students and other stakeholders to reduce food insecurity and improve access and affordability of fruit and vegetables. Using a co-design approach, university students and stakeholders will discuss options and be involved in the design process to ensure that the interventions meet their needs and expectations. Moreover, they are able to share their experiences in solving food insecurity issues among university students.

Understanding university students’ eating habits on campus will help identify appropriate interventions to reduce food insecurity and improve access and affordability of fruit and vegetables.

Survey 2024

Thank you so much for your interest and participation. The survey is now closed.

Research output

Macquarie University was one of nine Australian Universities across four states (VIC, TAS, QLD, NSW) that was assessed the extent to which university food environments are healthy, equitable and sustainable using the Uni-Food tool in 2022.

Read the full report of the `Uni-Food Australia 2023: Benchmarking the healthiness, equity and environmental sustainability of university food environments in Australia´ which has been released by Deakin University.

We concluded the survey in early January 2023. Thank you to all our participants and those who have shown an interest in this research.

Read the findings from the observation and qualitative study.

The key findings were:

  1. the need for better governance and leadership of the food environment
  2. the main barriers to accessing healthy foods were related to availability, pricing, and knowledge of healthy foods
  3. future intervention ideas included free fruits and vegetables, food relief, discounts, improved self-catering facilities, education, and increased healthy food outlets.

Read the findings from the survey.

The survey found that 46.4 per cent of respondents were food insecure, with only:

  • 5.1 per cent meeting recommended vegetable intake
  • 46.2 per cent meeting fruit intake guidelines.

Low fruit consumption was linked to food insecurity, driven by perceived lower accessibility and higher costs. A free fruit and vegetable campaign was the most popular proposed program, focusing on affordability and access.

These results highlight a link between food insecurity and low fruit and vegetable consumption in university students. Based on these findings, we propose framework of campus food and nutrition security.

This survey was conducted from July to September 2020.

We found a high prevalence of food insecurity among university students (41.9 per cent) and psychological distress (52.2 per cent, with high and very high levels).

Read about the findings.

Project funding

This project is funded by the Macquarie University Research Acceleration Scheme 2021.

Research team